When Kellie Shaffer was 9 years old, her big sister Beth Brodie was murdered near their home in Groveland. A former boyfriend, Richard Baldwin, then 16 was convicted and sentenced to life without parole.

The Supreme Court recently struck down such juvenile sentences as unconstitutional because they are mandatory. Last December the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled, according to Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, "Our supreme judicial court went even further than that with the extreme ruling that you can never have life without parole. That's a decision we disagree with, even the US Supreme Court of the United States disagreed with it."

Beth Brodie's family disagrees as well. They're concerned her convicted killer, may be found eligible for parole.

"We sat in those courtrooms day after day, " said her brother Sean Aylward. He said they listened to "gruesome details of the crime scene. whether or not he did this with murder with intention and premeditation. For two years we had to sit through that and then finally, we were almost relieved in 1995 when they said he was going away from the rest of his life and he would stay there."

However, youth advocates said sentences should be written for individuals. Gail Garinger is the Massachusetts Child Advocate, "obviously we're very sympathetic to victims and families who thought they had some certainty but..we have to really think about treating juveniles differently, even those who commit the most heinous crimes. Not all first degree murders are the same, not all juveniles are the same we need to think about individualized sentences."

Some 30 legislators, both Republicans and Democrats have signed on to a proposed bill that would change parole options for juveniles. Their summary document said, "... the burden will now be on the offender to affirmatively prove that release is appropriate."

Beth Brodie's family said they and a half dozen relatives of other victims will work to make parole the very last option. Sean Aylward said, "we're not going to sit around and wait for the state to act and say he's going to stay away for the rest of his life, we're going to fight the whole way."The legislature's Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the bill at the State House on May 14, at 1:00 p.m.